Pouring My Art Out

Red rocks and wedding bells…

Posted on January 22, 2016 by pouringmyartout

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Okay, so in the middle of our camping trip to Quartzsite, Arizona, my wife and I had to leave to drive to Sedona, Arizona. This is because Jason, our older daughter Jessica’s boyfriend, took her to Sedona to propose to her. And about a month ago he began texting my wife and I… and his parents… to get us all to meet them there for a celebratory dinner after he did the proposal. It was just a coincidence that we had already planned to be camping in Arizona the same weekend.

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Sedona is an awesome town in red rock country. Unfortunately, for this trip, we got there with just enough time to clean up in our hotel room before the dinner, and by the time dinner was over, I was too tired… and too drunk… to do anything but go to sleep… and it was pitch black outside… and the next morning we needed to leave too early to see anything interesting.

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Don’t worry… I did manage to get up before sunrise and do one of my adventure walks, so there will be pictures of that in a later post.

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Right now, I am just sharing the pictures I took as we drove into town while I assure you that, when Jessica and Jason showed up at their favorite Italian restaurant in Sedona, Jessica had no idea that we were all going to be there.

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Needless to say, it was an awesome evening.

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If you want to see more pictures of Sedona, do a search on my blog. We went there before, and I did posts about it.

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My wife told me to stop putting pictures of my kids on the blog… but if you want to see photos of Jessica… even some of when she was little… you can search those too… because I put some on before the ban was imposed back in the early days.

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Also, you should really visit Sedona.

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We didn’t even make it into the main part of town on this trip. But it was worth all that extra driving to see my daughter’s face when she walked into the restaurant.

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Sniff… stupid allergies…

Posted in My travels, Stories of my life | Tagged family, humor, love, nature, photography, sedona, travel | 6 Comments

The day I petted 68 dogs… a personal record… I’m pretty sure…

Posted on January 21, 2016 by pouringmyartout

So… where to start…

That’s our dog, Shiloh. I didn’t actually take pictures of all 68 dogs that I petted… that seemed like it would be rude… although I did count Shiloh as one of the 68 dogs. It was an attempt to set a record for most dogs petted in one day, not most dogs I met.

Mollie, my younger daughter, took a bunch of pictures of our dog, so I might as well use them in this post, right? I have had this idea of setting a dog petting record for some time. Up until this particular day, when we were camping in Quartzsite, Arizona, I had never bothered to actually keep count of how many dogs I petted. I love dogs… and they love me… (remember, never trust anyone if dogs, babies and horses don’t like them)… it isn’t unusual for me to pet 20 or 30 dogs in one day, if I am at a dog beach, or a camp ground with lots of dogs. I always knew that sooner or later, I would find the perfect place to set a good beginning record, which I could then, someday, try to beat… but I don’t know if I will ever beat this number.

As I mentioned, we were camping in Quartzsite because they have this huge annual swap meet. We have never gone before, but my wife’s aunt and uncle have been lots of times. It is a strange event full of weird people. It isn’t the normal recreational vehicle gathering… the people tend to be much older… and weirder… wait… what the heck is that? Why is that guy holding a sign?

Okay, there was actually a long story behind that… because I talked to the musicians… but I won’t bore you with it… this is all about dogs.

Here is the inside of the big circus tent. If you look closely, you will see at least one dog in this picture. Because almost everybody had a dog with them… walking dogs, dogs tied up at booths, dogs in strollers, dogs in carts and wagons… even dogs being carried in backpacks and slings like little babies… and then it hit me… this was the place to begin my quest to set a record for most dogs petted in one day.

Okay, I did take one photo of this cute little guy… and no, I don’t know what that black thing in my hand is… I was holding something, I guess, but I can’t remember what it was. But, as I said before, it was weird enough… even for me… to walk up to people and ask to pet their dogs, while trying to explain my crazy idea of setting a record, without making them wait for me to take a photo of the dog too… it seemed obnoxious… but people were very supportive of my plan… or they were just humoring the crazy big man…

I did try, in an earlier post, to sort of explain the weird place that is Quartzsite, Arizona. There isn’t really a town at all… no houses… just a gas station and truck stop and a small store… but there are some parts of the swap meet that have set up year-round residence. They build ramshackle buildings and barns and sheds and just stay there, waiting for the big swap meet week to begin again. And then, it isn’t a town, it is a sea of motor homes.

Those are the ‘bones’ of saguaro cacti, if you are interested.

You can find almost anything, from the new to the old to the bizarre, if you look long enough.

That is a photo I took from our car as we passed by the swap meet on the way back from… the other part of our adventure… which I will get to in later posts…

I took those two photos coming back from Sedona, Arizona… and you want to stick around for that…

So, yeah, I spent the whole time, on one of the two days we went to the swap meet, trying to pet as many dogs as possible.

I got to 57 before we got back to where we were camping far out in the desert.

Awww… Shiloh has the sweetest eyes… good picture, Mollie! Anyway, I figured I could bump my number up higher if I walked around to a bunch of other campers and asked to pet their dogs. People loved the idea. They were sending me to their friends, telling me about people who had two dogs… it was amazing.

Oh, I also counted Riley… my wife’s aunt and uncle’s dog… who is Shiloh’s best friend.

Riley loves me…

So, as Shiloh stands guard against rattlesnakes, scorpions, gila monsters and coyotes, I will end this post by saying this: Pet more dogs! If you can break my record, I will honor you by doing a post about it… unless you are one of those weird judges at the dog shows that do the weird dog touching thing… that doesn’t count. Maybe next year we will go back to Quartzsite and I will actually take pictures of all the dogs I pet… and try to beat my record. Maybe I will even turn it into a book.

Posted in dogs and other animals, My travels, Stories of my life | Tagged animals, current-events, dogs, humor, pets, photography, social-media, travel | 14 Comments

The desert… the final chapter…

Posted on January 20, 2016 by pouringmyartout

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Okay, obviously it isn’t really the final chapter… we are, however, getting close to being finished with the pictures of the first part of our trip to Arizona, and we will be moving on to other things besides the desert… sort of… But before we do…

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I thought I would share a few of the Photos that my 16-year-old daughter, Mollie, took.

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I am endlessly thankful that she got my artistic sensibilities and my wife’s math and logic skills… if it had been the other way around, we would be in real trouble.

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Fortunately, she can think… and do math… but she is also musical and poetic and creative and artistic… so… yay!

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And, as I said, she has an eye for seeing the world around her… and she can capture it on film.

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I loved watching her run around the desert, crouching down to get the perfect shot… considering the backgrounds… waiting for the ideal moment to capture a sunset or looking for a new vantage point.

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Okay, I took that one. I was walking around in the desert and I found an old tire… with a paint can lid in it. It never ceases to amaze me that humans love nature so much that they go to all the trouble of getting out in it… and leave their freakin’ trash there.

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But Mollie sees the beauty… even in a decaying bit of cactus…

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Because that is just the way she is.

Posted in My travels, Pictures of me, Stories of my life | Tagged art, desert, humor, nature, outdoors, photography, travel | 2 Comments

The desert… part 3…

Posted on January 20, 2016 by pouringmyartout

I need to get through the photos of the desert part of our trip before I can move on to my record-breaking dog petting day, and the marriage proposal… and some other interesting things… so here are a bunch of pictures of desert sunsets. Many of these were taken by my younger daughter, Mollie, who is quite artistic and has an eye for capturing the world around her with a camera. I won’t interrupt the photos with words… I don’t think words can add anything to these pictures.

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Posted in My travels, Stories of my life, sunsets | Tagged Arizona, art, camping, humor, nature, outdoors, photography, sunsets, travel | 4 Comments

The desert… part 2…

Posted on January 19, 2016 by pouringmyartout

Here they are… in no particular order… thirty pictures, taken almost in the same spot… (right by the front bumper of the motor home)… within a three day period… in the desert… near Quartzsite, Arizona, and all of the same mountain range. They show the stunning sunrises, the shifting colors, the moods of the desert. There were times when the mountains were rendered almost invisible by haze, and other times when the air was so clear you could almost reach out and touch them. The clouds did an gentle, gliding dance around the mountains, and then vanished almost in the blink of an eye. The clouds were endlessly playful. The play of light on those peaks was endlessly fascinating to watch… and this is just a few days… imagine if I had stayed there for a year doing this… HA! You might feel like I did by the end of this post.

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Posted in My travels, Pictures of me, Stories of my life | Tagged Arizona, art, camping, desert, humor, nature, outdoors, photography, travel | 10 Comments

The desert… part 1…

Posted on January 19, 2016 by pouringmyartout

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Okay, this is really just a clever way to finish using the photos I took on my early morning walk up a mountain… (see last post)… but the truth is, I was out in the desert for four days, and I am going to introduce you to the American Southwest… because I have a lot of pictures…

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As I watched the sun come up over the distant peaks, I became fascinated by that range of mountains looming on the horizon. I have sort of a love/hate relationship with the desert. I live in a desert. Yes, I know, San Diego, beaches, palm trees, it doesn’t scream desert, but it is one. The Southwest of the United States is mostly desert. But this desert, in Arizona, is a whole other ballgame.

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The desert takes many forms. My feeling is that if you have to be in a desert… and it isn’t winter… it better at least be an interesting desert. I want mountains that look like they are on an alien planet… and big saguaro cacti… It should look like a John Wayne movie at the very least.

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Now see, that mountain range looks like it is on an alien planet… and it is winter… so we are good. I have been coming to San Diego since I was a kid, because my grandmother lived there. But she lived right on the beach, so I was blissfully unaware I was going to a desert. But, when I was about 13-years-old, my family rented a small motor home, and we went to Death Valley. The first time I stepped out the door once we were actually in Death Valley, the heat punched me right in the face, I walked 20 feet, kicked over a rock, and a big scorpion came out… right at me… and I backed into a cactus. Also, I hate being hot… so yeah, love/hate the desert.

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I mean, let’s take a closer look at that leafless bush right there…

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Why does everything in the desert look like it wants to kill you?

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And yet, there is a tranquility in the desert… a stillness… (if you can get far enough away not to hear all the assholes driving around on their all-terrain-vehicles)… that is mind blowing.

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The desert has moods… and a lot of the time,she shows her moods in colors. There is noting like sunrises and sunsets in the desert.

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I became so captivated by the changing moods of those far-away mountains, that the whole time we were camping there, I would periodically go out and snap a photo of them. I think I will do a whole post with no words… just all the photos I took in that one spot… as the light and colors changed the feeling of the desert around me… and maybe I will call that post something really clever… like: ‘The desert… part 2…’

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Seriously, if you ever get a chance to travel through the American Southwest, it will surprise and delight you… as long as it is winter… or you have really good air conditioning in your car. There is a lot of history there, the Native American tribes, the food, the strange people that deserts always seem to attract… it will be worth your time… but get out there and walk around a bit… carefully.

Posted in My travels, Stories of my life | Tagged Arizona, art, desert, humor, outdoors, photography, sunrise, travel | 22 Comments

I climbed a freekin’ mountain… covered in cacti… in the dark… to get you these pictures…

Posted on January 19, 2016 by pouringmyartout

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Okay, so we got to Quartzsite, Arizona late, and by the time we had the motor home set up, it was too dark for any photos… but I got up while it was still dark, and went on one of my patented ‘adventure walks’, just to get you some good pictures of the first sunrise… that is how much I care…

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I took that picture after I came back down that mountain. In case it looks like just a small hill to you, the red arrow is pointing at a full-sized saguaro cactus… which is like almost 30-feet-tall… up near the top. Also, that hill was steep, and covered with loose shale, slippery rocks, cacti, rattlesnakes, scorpions, and, once again, I climbed it in the DARK! For you!

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I know… you think I am exaggerating. That picture shows how close I came to walking right in to a saguaro. I was halfway to the mountain before the sun even began to lighten the sky.

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Oh, and it was really cold, too.

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That is the first picture I took from the top, which proves it really was very dark. Okay, technically, I didn’t go all the way to the top. That is because I like including Mollie, our 16-year-old, on my adventure walks now, and she wasn’t there yet, so I saved the last hair-raising scramble over slipper rocks so I could bring her with me, and let her experience the joy of that crazy climb, and I didn’t want it to be just me taking her somewhere I had already been… I wanted to share that moment of reaching the crest with her… I know… I am that sweet and awesome.

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Just so you know, an adventure walk is something I invented years ago. Whenever I travel, I get up before the sunrise and just start walking. I am very good at finding something interesting to see and do on these walks. I try to do something that is a little dangerous so I have an interesting story to tell. It doesn’t always have to be in the morning. When I do the post about Mollie and I climbing this same hill, it will be me and her racing the sunset so we don’t have to go down the mountain in the dark… which would have been at least as crazy as me climbing up it in the dark for these pictures.

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I can’t explain the feeling of being there as the sun started to rise. There are some things that have to be experienced. Oh, and I apologize for dropping off the grid for four days. We were ‘dry camping’… which means no electricity, no fresh water, no place to drain the holding tanks, and no internet… so… sorry about that.

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I hope you like the desert… because I have a lot of pictures, and you are going to get to know the feel of the American Southwest if you read all these posts.

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And I know you are all anxious to hear about my other daughter getting engaged, and about the day I petted 68 dogs…

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But we will get to that later… that photo is from the top of the mountain, looking back at where we were camping. Yeah, I walked through that wasteland… in the dark… for you.

Posted in My travels, Stories of my life | Tagged Arizona, desert, humor, nature, outdoors, photography, sunrise, travel | 6 Comments

I don’t really know where to start…

Posted on January 19, 2016 by pouringmyartout

I mean, this was an awesome adventure, and I have lots of photos, and I usually do these things in some weird order that only makes sense to me… but for a change, I am going to start at the beginning and then see how long that lasts.

A few months back, my mother-in-law bought a small camping motorhome. She made sure it was big enough to fit her, and my wife… her daughter… and our youngest daughter. We go camping with my wife’s aunt and uncle… you might remember all this from earlier posts… like the one about the bald eagles.

Anyway, we have had plans for a while to go camping in the desert at a place in Arizona called Quartzsite. There isn’t really a town there, just a gas station and a few other things, but they have this huge swap meet every year. I will get to all that later.

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I love that picture. It sums up Southern California perfectly… snowy mountains… behind palm trees and power lines… HA! See, my mother-in-law, and my aunt and uncle-in-law, left one day before my wife and daughter, because Mollie had school on Thursday. I needed to be there for the tricky driving parts. We head North out of San Diego, and then cut inland… East… when we were East of L.A. This took us through the valley where Palm Springs is located.

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I took that picture while I was driving a motor home through bad traffic… don’t ever do that!

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I took these other pictures when we stopped to take a break. But they really do highlight the fact that California has everything from palm trees to snowy mountains.

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